NatGeo ‘Afghan girl’ returns to Kabul, President Ghani promises her new home

Sharbat Gula, the green-eyed woman immortalised on a National Geographic cover and arguably Afghanistan’s most famous refugee, was arrested last month for living in Pakistan on fraudulent identity papers.

Sharbat Gula, the green-eyed "Afghan Girl" whose 1985 photo in National Geographic became a symbol of her country's wars, arrives in Kabul to meet with Afghanistan's President Ashraf Ghani on Wednesday.(Reuters)

Afghanistan’s president on Wednesday welcomed back Sharbat Gula, the green-eyed woman immortalised on a National Geographic cover, after she was deported from Pakistan to the war-torn homeland she first fled decades ago.

Pakistani officials handed over Gula, whose haunting eyes were captured in a cover photo taken in a refugee camp in the 1980s, to Afghan border authorities after escorting her from a Peshawar hospital where she was being treated for Hepatitis C.

Gula, arguably Afghanistan’s most famous refugee, was arrested last month for living in Pakistan on fraudulent identity papers.

“Pleased to have welcomed Sharbat Gula & her family back to (Afghanistan),” President Ashraf Ghani said on Twitter. “Her life inspires us all. She represents all the brave women of this land.”

The president and first lady Rula Ghani honoured Gula and her children at a ceremony at the presidential palace in Kabul.

Ghani has promised to provide Gula, 45, with a furnished apartment to ensure she “lives with dignity and security” in Afghanistan.

Speaking to AFP last week in Pakistan, Gula said she was “heartbroken” at the prospect of returning.